Andrea Lawful-Sanders Ousted Over Joe Biden Questions
Philly Radio Station Parts Ways With Host Who Interviewed Joe Biden With Questions Provided By His Campaign
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Black radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders is one of the few journalists who has landed a one-on-one interview with President Joe Biden following his abysmal debate performance against former President Donald Trump, who didn’t receive nearly as much backlash as the incumbent despite generally lying his way through the entire hour-and-a-half-long spectacle.
Unfortunately for Lawful-Sanders, the interview ended up being her undoing with Philadelphia’s Black talk radio station WURD, which ended its relationship with her after she admitted to using pre-scripted questions provided to her by the Biden campaign.
According to Variety, Sara Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio, issued a lengthy statement saying the station and Lawful-Sanders “have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately,” and she emphasized that the station had no knowledge of the now-former host’s discussions with Biden’s team, which resulted in her using at least four of the question Biden’s campaign provided her.
The revelation that Lawful-Sanders asked Biden pre-determined questions may backfire on Biden as well because the president, who has been criticized for coming off as old, weak and disconnected during the first debate, was actually being praised for how sharp he came off during the WURD interview. However, now that it has been confirmed that his campaign provided some of the questions he was asked, it kind of looks like his people were protecting him by taking precautions to ensure he doesn’t present himself the same way he did on June 27.
From Variety:
It’s not unusual for political public affairs officials or corporate communications executives to provide background and talking points to journalists for high-level interviews. But pre-written questions and confirmation that specific queries will be used is against the norms of mainstream U.S. news media outlets. Given the swirl around Biden and his fitness for office at age 81, the revelation that Lawful-Sanders and others agreed to such highly irregular interview terms contributes to the perception that mainstream and liberal news media outlets have sought to shield Biden’s age-related problems from the public.
A political candidate or incumbent doesn’t want to get caught pressuring the media to feed them questions that were pre-approved by their campaigns, and no self-respecting journalist wants to get caught acquiescing to such a request. That kind of thing is just bound to come back and bite you in the end.
